Charles’ succession stirs Caribbean calls for reparations, removal of monarch as head of state

KINGSTON/NEW YORK, Sept 8 (Reuters) – The accession of King Charles to the British throne has stirred renewed calls from politicians and activists for former colonies within the Caribbean to take away the monarch as their head of state and for Britain to pay slavery reparations.

Charles succeeds his mom, Queen Elizabeth, who ruled for 70 years and died on Thursday afternoon.

The prime minister of Jamaica mentioned his nation would mourn Elizabeth, and his counterpart in Antigua and Barbuda ordered flags to half-staff till the day of her burial.

But in some quarters there are doubts in regards to the function a distant monarch ought to play within the twenty first century. Earlier this 12 months, some Commonwealth leaders expressed unease at a summit in Kigali, Rwanda, in regards to the passage of management of the 54-nation membership from Elizabeth to Charles.

And an eight-day tour in March by now heir-to-the-throne Prince William and his spouse, Kate, to Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas was marked by calls for reparation funds and an apology for slavery.

“As the role of the monarchy changes, we expect this can be an opportunity to advance discussions of reparations for our region,” Niambi Hall-Campbell, a 44-year-old tutorial who chairs the Bahamas National Reparations Committee, mentioned Thursday.

Hall-Campbell despatched condolences to the Queen’s household and famous Charles’ acknowledgment of the “appalling atrocity of slavery” at a ceremony final 12 months marking the tip of British rule as Barbados turned a republic.

She mentioned she hopes Charles would lead in a manner reflecting the “justice required of the times. And that justice is reparatory justice.”

More than 10 million Africans have been shackled into the Atlantic slave commerce by European nations between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. Those who survived the brutal voyage have been pressured to labor on plantations within the Caribbean and the Americas.

Jamaican reparations advocate Rosalea Hamilton mentioned Charles’ feedback on the Kigali convention about his private sorrow over slavery supplied “some degree of hope that he will learn from the history, understand the painful impact that many nations have endured ’til today” and tackle the necessity for reparations.

The new king didn’t point out reparations within the Kigali speech.

The Advocates Network, which Hamilton coordinates, printed an open letter calling for “apologies and reparations” throughout William and Kate’s go to.

The Queen’s grandchildren have the prospect to guide the reparations dialog, Hamilton added.

Jamaica’s authorities final 12 months introduced plans to ask Britain for compensation for forcibly transporting an estimated 600,000 Africans to work on sugar cane and banana plantations that created fortunes for British slave holders.

“Whoever will take over the position should be asked to allow the royal family to pay African people reparations,” mentioned David Denny, basic secretary of the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration, from Barbados.

“We should all work towards removing the royal family as head of state of our nations,” he mentioned.

Jamaica has signaled it might quickly observe Barbados in ditching royal rule. Both stay members of the Commonwealth.

An August survey confirmed 56% of Jamaicans favor eradicating the British monarch as the head of state.

Mikael Phillips, an opposition member of Jamaica’s parliament, in 2020 filed a movement backing the removal.

“I am hoping as the prime minister had said in one of his expressions, that he would move faster when there is a new monarch in place,” Phillips mentioned on Thursday.

Allen Chastanet, a former St. Lucia prime minister and now chief of the opposition, advised Reuters he backed what he mentioned was a “general” motion towards republicanism in his nation.

“I certainly at this point would support becoming a republic,” he mentioned.

Reporting by Kate Chappell in Kingston; further reporting by Robertson Henry in St. Vincent and Michela Moscufo in New York
Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb
Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Leslie Adler

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